CLAIM: God will purify Israel in the End Times by judging and removing all wickedness in the land. In contrast, wickedness will come to fullness in the land of Shinar (Babylon). Israel was cleansed of overt idol worship after the return to the land in 536 BC. However, Israel’s sin has never been completely dealt with in the manner envisioned here. This prophecy was spoken in the waning days of ancient Babylon (519 BC), yet it envisioned a future resurgence of that city as the dwelling place of wickedness (Rev. 17-18).
False.
The curse going forth into the land and the basket going forth would both have been in the historic period of building the temple.
The woman basket is specifically seen as the same great harlot. Israel had let in the sins of harlotry through their many sins, and this principality had entered into the land. The student will notice, after the second temple, the nation never returned to the worship of the golden calves as they had prior to this. This removal of the wickedness represented by the woman would most likely correspond to this removal of this principality that they had empowered over their land, as apparently a mercy from the Lord.
This principality or power would then have been symbolized by the woman Jezebel, whom Ahab had married, contrary to God’s law. When the king of the nation married the harlot, the power had access to the country from the head down, and dominated even Ahab.
This power was now to be carried to Babylon, and where a house (presumably built out of their own sins) was being built for it, and it would be there that it would be established. This Jezebel, the great harlot, would be the same one then that John saw atop the seven hills of Rome, personified by the Roman goddess “Roma”. She was minted on coins depicting her upon the seven hills beside the waters of the river there. She was the “great city” of Revelation 17, because she personified the city, as well as “civilization herself”, in otherwise, the mother of all harlots.
This is why John was astonished when he saw her. Whether he knew it or not, she represented the wickedness that had been removed from the land, and had been transferred into Babylon. From the Daniel 2 vision, we understand that Rome was symbolized by Babylon, because the statue consisted of all four empires, and if you call the head Babylon, you also call the foot Babylon as well. Hence, when power went from one one-world empire to the next, the power continued to it as well.
This was the same, or similar, Jezebel power or principality, the “queen of heaven”, that we see witnessed in modern culture today, as the wickedness and harlotries are cultivated, once again, in modern culture. This personality would have been hated by the demonic emperor, for, in the temples honoring himself as a god, this demon was also venerated, often higher than himself. Jezebel ruled the entire known world, from Babylon to Rome, and it wasn’t until its fall that men were no longer dominated by this demonic hold.
However, today, especially in recent times, we have seen its return. This doesn’t mean that Zechariah 4 wasn’t fully fulfilled, but rather that the dragon, the great satan, is up to its old tricks, attempting to deceive the nations to war again.